Seasons-Winter

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under heaven:

²     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
⁶     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

As the season changes from fall to winter, I am reminded again that I don't want winter to come.  I don't like the cold, the dirty snow, the lack of vegetation.  But there is nothing I can do about Winter, it comes whether I like it or not.  

The teacher writes in Ecc. 3, that there is a time for everything a season for every activity.  Seasons were created for good reason.  Winter has its purpose.  The fields rest (except for winter wheat, which is already getting a head start for next years harvest), the bushes are pruned, the weeds in the garden die back, but winter is cold and dark, nothing I long for.  

I have found myself to be in winter.  Some call it "the dark night of the soul", "the wall", "a crisis of faith".  It is a place that is very unnatural to me, I am one who chases after God refusing to left out in the cold.  I sing with the Psalmist "I was glad when they said unto me, let us go to the house of the Lord".  Yet even when I am there I feel the cold, dark, Winter in my soul.  Have I left God?  Has He left me?  Why am I in the unproductive season of Winter?

In Psalm 88:13, "O Lord, I cry out to you.  I will keep on pleading day by day.  O Lord, why do you reject me?  Why do you turn your face away from me?  And in verse 18, "You have taken my companions and loved ones from me; the darkness is my closest friend."  Sounds like the cold, dark, lonely, Winter.  

I refuse to believe that God has rejected me.  I know that He is love.  I know that He wants to reveal Himself to me through His Word.  I know that Christ Jesus died for me, so why am I in the dark, cold, Winter?  

Spiritual Rhythm, Being with Jesus Every Season of your Soul. by Mark Buchanan.  Nearing Home, Life, Faith, and Finishing Well, by Billy Graham have helped me to see the value of Winter.  Just as my lot in life is chosen by God with all its joys, accomplishments, beauty, irritations, trials and difficulties:  Psalm 16:5 says, "Lord, you have assigned my portion and my cup-you have made my lot secure", so too He has allowed this season to come for His purposes and my good.  

Mark Buchanan says " when Christ dwelt on earth, he certainly had such moments, and he sought both the consolation of his Father and the companionship of his friends to ease his dread and his sorrow.  "Will no one stay awake with me?"  Jesus asked.  Sometimes, I think, he still asks it.  Is it possible that in this winter of yours, when you desperately need Jesus to stay with you, he's just as happy for you to stay with him?"  

Could it be that in my business of relationships and service, I wasn't spending the time with him that he wanted?  The Shepherd of my soul, wants me to yield to him and come along side him.  To just stay awake with him, to be content beside him.  

Billy Graham says, "True joy is derived from depending on the Lord Jesus.  He is the One who supplies our strength in weakness, "for when we are weak, He is strong", (2 Cor. 12:10)".  Remember "the righteous will live by faith" (Hak. 2:4, Heb. 10:38).  Graham teaches that when you are friendless and lonely focus on Jesus (Heb. 12:1-3), encourage others and pray for others (Heb 10:24-25), and continue to study and meditate on God's Word to present yourself to God as one approved (2 Tim. 2:15).

Winter is a time of different work, a time to prune back, a time to prepared yourself for the spring.  A time to focus on Christ and wait.  There is a calm in Winter, you can't do all of the work of summer, you have less responsibility.  You have time to look back and remember how you have experienced God in the past.  You have time to think ahead to what will come.  And you have time to enjoy being in his presence today and trusting Him.

The Winter is a the place where I can't survive without faith.  I don't feel His presence, I don't see His face, yet I still believe He loves me and I know that Spring will come, because he is in charge of the seasons.  

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful"  Hebrews 10:23.